Oliver CromwellThe man who tried to change the History of Britain
The King against the Parliament
The English Civil War (1642-46 )

THE BACKGROUND OF CIVIL
WAR

Life was difficult in
England in the 17th Century: The country was experiencing problems over
this period: social tensions resulting from a rapidly growing
population, which caused high unemployment, poverty and disorder; tensions caused by the increasing number of the middle classes or the
declining position of the old aristocracy; constitutional tensions between
a despotic King which was anxious to retain and extend its powers and a
Parliament which wanted more power for itself and greater rights and
liberties for the people; and religious tensions, resulting from the
desire by an active minority within the State
Church, the Church of
England, to remove some of the ceremonial elements and to create a simpler,
'lower' form of religion, in spite of a vast majority
against such changes.

Many of
the problemswere caused by the political errors, the mistakes and
incompetence of Charles I. A lot of people were angry with him because of his
authoritarian rule; he thought he had a Divine right to do
whatever he wanted, and he decided everything on his own, without calling
Parliament, throughout the 1630s. His despotic line continued with he
full control over the fiscal and other powers of the Crown, and he even
wanted to impose upon the Church of England a more elaborate and
ceremonial form of religion.

Charles Iwas a King who
spent an awful lot of moneywhile his country was
poor and sad; besides, he hated the
Puritans; he had persecuted them, and lots of Puritans lost their ears and
noses (!) because of this cruel King. And he had also tried to force and impose
a new prayer book on Scotland
in the late 1630s. The Scots didn't like this at
all, and Scotland rose up in revolt against the King's religious
policies. The
Scots defeated the English army, and then demanded £850 per day from the
English until the two sides reached agreement.
Charles I was forced to call Parliament in 1640 and to make concessions to
it, changing some of his earlier policies. But the political crisis in
England continued: many people within Parliament demanded more
political, constitutional and religious reforms which Charles, now winning
some sympathy and support within the country, didn't accept. In 1642,
both King and Parliament gathered thousands of armed supporters, and soon
this political crisis deteriorated into a civil war.

OLIVER
CROMWELL.
From Member of Parliament to Lord Protector of the Realm

Cromwell,
born in Huntingdon in 1599, was a strict Puritan with a Cambridge
education when he went to London to represent his family in Parliament.
He was a quiet and hard-working man
when he was young, but one day he found himself 'possessed'with a Puritan fervor which gave
him a strong temper and a commanding
voice, so he quickly became famous
in London for his great authority when he spoke.

Those were very hard
times for the English Parliament, which had almost no power at all, under
the rule of the King. Finally, Parliament was
fed up with this situation, and its Members refused to authorize any
more money to be spent, until Charles
Idecided to change his behaviour. The
Triennial Act of 1641 stated that the
King would call Parliament at least every three
years, a formidable challenge to this despotic King.
A new era of leadership from the House of Commons (supported by
lots of middle class
merchants, tradesmen and Puritans) had started.

1642 was an
exceptional year for Parliament. They put an end to
many royal prerogatives by abolishing episcopacy,
and then placed the army and navy directly under parliamentary
supervision and declared that this would be a Law
even if the king refused to sign.
King Charles was very, very angry with this situation, and one day he
entered the House of
Commons (the first king to do so). He wantedto arrest John Pym, the leader of Parliament and
four others, but the five conspirators had already escaped,
making the king looka bit stupid.
Charles traveled North to recruit an army and
raised his standard against the forces of Parliament at Nottingham on
August 22, 1642. A civil war was
now starting in England, and Cromwell was ready to take part in
it.

John Pym and the
conspirators hadescaped to London,
where they were hidden by Puritan loyalists, who dominated the city
government. The King demanded the return of Pym, but the citizens refused.
London, at least, was in rebellion.That summer,
Parliament, fearing military action from the King,
tried to seize control of the army by giving orders
to soldiers to
report to Parliamentary, rather than Royal, representatives. The King ordered
that bill to be ignored and
raised his own army in August, an army for which he
invited the Irish catholics to join him. Obviously
this wasn't a popular idea in Protestant England, and the powerful
Puritans were very upset.

Some soldiers turned out for
the King, some for Parliament, and the war was
on. Those loyal to Parliament were called "Roundheads",
a funny nickname for the British Puritans;
those loyal to the King were 'Cavaliers'.
The Royalist were strong in
the north and west of the country, while the
main territory of the 'Roundhead'was in the south
and especially in London.

THE CIVIL WAR

The Parliamentary army was not very strong at the
beginning. When Cromwellsaw
this weakness,hedecided to make
himself captain of the cavalry. Cromwell had never been trained in war,
but from the very beginning he showed consummate genius as a
General. Cromwell understood that successful
revolutions were always fought by farmers so he gathered a thousand hand-picked
Puritans - farmers and herdsmen - who were used to living
and working in the open fields. His
regiment was nicknamed "Ironsides" and was never
defeated, although
they fought greatly outnumbered - at times three to one.

Cromwell's was a
strange army indeed. Many of
its soldiers were Puritans, and they used to
recite religious prayers and march into battle
singing the Psalms of David,but at
the same time showing an unimaginable fury and cruelty with the
enemy. Cromwell's tactic was to strike with the cavalry through the
advancing army at the center, go straight through the lines and then
circle to either the left or the right, creating
confusion and completely destroying them. Cromwell
amassed a body of troops and soon became commander-in-chief. His
discipline created the only body of regular troops on either side who
preached, prayed, paid fines for blasphemy and drunkenness, and charged
the enemy singing hymns - the strangest abnormality in an age when every
vice one can imagine, could be foundin
soldiers and mercenaries.

The first real battle between king and Parliament came in October 1642 at
Edgehill.Cromwell added sixty horses to the
Parliamentary cause when war broke out.
It was an inconclusive battle, but it showed both that Parliament was not
strong enough to defeat the king, and that Charles I
was unable to take London. It was at this point when
Cromwell
realized that he needed to build a
bigger and better trained cavalry.Cromwell proved most capable as a military
leader.
His men were more and more powerful, and by the Battle of Marston
Moor in 1644, Cromwell's new army
had strong and experienced forces and
even the Royalists acknowledged this, calling Cromwell "Ironside".
By that time he had assumed command of the rebel forces.

January 1643

The forces of Parliament sent out a delegation to negotiate peace,
but King Charles was feeling stronger and refused
to talk. But there was a group of Members of Parliament
that was willing to
compromise with the King in order to
finish with the civil war.Both sides were confiscating the properties of
their enemies to finance the war effort, creating even more political
chaos with every attack, either on an army, or on a castle
or fortification. But the King gained several victories in 1643, which
convinced him not to negotiate or compromise with the rebels.

Marston Moor

In December 1643, Henry Pym died,
but before that, he had made a deal with the Scots. This was always
Charles' great worry, that the rebels would ally with the Scots. So, just
when he was feeling stronger, Charles found himself visited with a new
calamity. In January 1644, the Scots invaded England with 20,000
men. A royalist army, led by Prince Rupert, went north to meet them and on
2 July 1644, the Battle of Marston Moor occurred. It was a day-long
confrontation. Toward the end of the day, Oliver Cromwell led a cavalry
charge that destroyed the Royalist Cavaliers, around back, and then charged again
into their flanks. Cromwell's charge brought a complete victory for the
Roundheads. Soon after this, the city of York fell, giving the Roundheads
the two largest cities in the realm. King Charles was really in trouble.

The forces of Parliament were now almost in
control, and the question was was what to do with the king. The
moderates did not want to bring the King to a final battle, fearing what
it might mean. They wanted a negotiated settlement, not the death of their
king. The radicals wanted it all -- these were the
Independents and Oliver Cromwell was emerging as their leader.

The New Model Army

In 1644, Parliament
started to separate the army from the politicians, and a
new law stated that soldiers should be out
of Parliament. Cromwell was left as
an exception to the rule, because everyone recognized he was the
rebels' most effective general. All other MPs had to lay down their
military commands, and a new army was formed.
Parliament felt that a
professional army would be more successful against the kingís army. It was
a military unit that was to transform the English Civil War. The Battle
of Marston Moor, had been a major victory for Parliament but not totally
decisive, because Charles could recover from
it. The New Model Army would change all this.
The New Model Army's commander-in-chief was General Fairfax and
Oliver Cromwell was put in charge of the cavalry.

Therefore, Parliament's army was now a national army,
recruiting soldiers from all the
areas under Roundhead control. It was a Puritan army, too, with Puritan
preachers in every unit. Parliament had managed to get politics out of the
army, but not religion.
The New Model Army was a military force based on a personís ability rather
than on your position within society. If you were good enough, you could
be an officer in it. One of the leading officers in the New Model Army had
been a butcher. This removal of this social obstacle meant that the New
Model Army was open to new ideas and social class meant nothing. Cromwell
preferred that the men in the new force were strong believers like himself
and many men in the New Model Army became Puritans
who knew that God was on their side.

Final Victory and execution

The first test for the New Model Army came soon
enough. At Naseby, 14 June 1645, Roundhead and Cavaliers met. Again,
Cromwell was victorious with his powerful cavalry
charge. The Roundheads had demonstrated superior discipline
and strength. At the end of the battle, more than
1,000 Royalist soldiers killed, and some 4,500 taken prisoner. Besides,
Cromwell captured most of the King's guns and ammunition. Naseby marks the real victory of Parliament,
although fighting lasted until July. Within a year,
Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament.

In 1646, England was ruled
exclusively by Parliament.
In that year, the captive Kingescaped to the Isle of Wight for another year, but
he was foundand had to surrender
to the army.They turned the king over to Parliament
again in February 1647.
Parliament had won its victory, andthe English king was a captive
again.
The question now was: what next?

The
king was not executed until 1649. The trial of Charles I
began on 20 January 1649 and took only a few
days. King Charles didn't say much,
but it wouldn't have been of much help, either. He conducted himself with a calm dignity that impressed even
his enemies. He was convicted of treason by a vote of 26 to 20, for 24
members refused to vote. He was beheaded on a snowy day,
before a large but silent crowd,
on 30 January 1649. His stoicism and dignity, at his trial and at his
execution, caused a great impression in the public
opinion.

Would you like to read the King's
death sentence? Here it goes, but you are going to read it in the original
English of the 17th century.

CHARLES I'sDEATH WARRANT

Whereas Charles Stuart, King of England, is and standeth convicted,
attained and condemned of High Treason and other high crimes; and
sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this court,
to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body; of
which sentence execution yet remaineth to be done: These are
therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence executed,
in the open street before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the
thirtieth day of this instant month of January, between the hours of
ten in the morning and five in the afternoon, with full effect. And
for so doing, this shall be your warrant.

So did England kill its King. It was the first time the public
authority executed a King, either in England or anywhere else in Europe.
It marks how far political thinking had advanced, and it marks how strong
the non-noble classes had grown. It also showed yet again, as if anyone
needed the demonstration, of how powerful a political force religion could
be.

But even with the King executed,
England was still in trouble:

The greatest authority
in England was now in the
Parliamentary army, commanded by Cromwell,
who moved quickly to end the debates. Things would soon
change withing the House of Parliament: Cromwell found that a
democratic parliamentary system run by old-fashioned
squires and lords oppressed the
common people and was almost as corrupt as the rulership of the deposed
evil king.

It was November 1648.Under Cronwell's direct orders, as
many as 110 Members of Parliament were removed, and another 160 Members
refused to take their seats. Not many remained, but the ones who stayed
started to change the English constitution. The machinery of government
was destroyed, abolishing not only the monarchy but even the House of
Lords and other political institutions. England was
now ruled by an executive Council of State and what
was left from the Parliament, with various subcommittees dealing
with day-to-day affairs. Of great importance was the administration in the
shires and parishes: the machinery administering such governments was left
intact.

With the death of the ancient constitution, and
with Parliament in control, the English
hadto stop several rebellions
at home, as well as in Ireland and Scotland.
Cromwell forced submission from the nobility, and his
terrible army killed over forty percent of
the indigenous Irishmen, who remained catholics and
royalists; the remaining Irishmen were forcedto go to County Connaught with the Act of
Settlement in 1653. Scottish Presbyterians fought for a
Royal restoration, in the person of Charles II, but were
finally defeated, ending the last remnants of civil
war. Cromwell's army then turned its attention to
internal matters.

During these years, Cromwell found
that Parliament was
a contrary and difficult body, and he was as unhappy as Charles
I had been with it. But he also found himself as dependent on
Parliament as Charles had been,
because he too needed
money for the wars.He had already asked Parliament
to break up and disband and the
Members of Parliament had (obviously)
refused. What is more, In April 1653,
the Parliament proposed to have
moreMembers and to sit permanently,
not only from time to time.

The small Parliament was turning
into anunimportant,
self-perpetuating oligarchy, which lost credibility in the eyes of the
army. Cromwell ended the Parliament with great indignity on April 21,
1653, ordering the House to be
abandoned at the point of a sword. Cromwell entered the House
when they were debating.
He listened for a while, then rose to his feet and shouted: "Come, come! I will put an end to your prating. You
are no Parliament. I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your
sitting." Before the surprised
Members of Parliament could recover, Cromwell had called his troops
into the House and cleared it. Oliver Cromwell had now
complete power. He was the new "king".

The army called for a new Parliament of Puritan
saints, who proved as inept as the previous ones.
By 1655, Cromwell dissolved his new Parliament, choosing to rule alone,
just like Charles I had done in 1629. England had
now a new dictator. The cost of keeping a standard army of 35,000
soldiers proved financially incompatible with Cromwell's monetarily
poor government. Two wars with the Dutch because of
trade abroad,increased
Cromwell's financial problems. England was broke again.

The military's solution was to form another version
of Parliament. A House of Peers was created, packed with Cromwell's
supporters and with true veto power, but the Commons proved most
antagonistic towards Cromwell. The monarchy had been restored in all but name;
Cromwell went from the title of Lord General of the Army to that of Lord
Protector of the Realm.The title of
King was suggested, but wisely
rejected by Cromwell when a furor arose in the military ranks.

Cromwell, Lord Protector, died on September
3, 1658; having become a standard dictator, he named his son Richard as
his successor. He was
buried as a King, in Westminster Abbey. With Cromwell's death, the
Commonwealth disappeared and the monarchy was
restored only two years later.

The Restoration of King Charles II in May 1660 was
at the invitation of Parliament, and followed the abdication of
Cromwell's son, Richard. After this
... Cromwell's corpsewas taken out of his grave. The
surrealistic decision to remove Cromwell's body
from Westminster Abbey, along with those of two others implicated in the
execution of the King, was taken by Parliament in December 1660. After a
macabre hanging their heads were chopped off and placed on poles on Westminster Hall as a
warning to others. A terrible end for the man who started
as a Member of Parliament and became a "king" after excuting the real one.

To sum up ....

Positive and negative things
happened under Cromwell's rule in Great Britain. During the fifteen
years in which Cromwell was in power, he
eliminated the pirates from the Mediterranean Sea,
set English captives free, and avoided any threat
from France, Spain and Italy. Cromwell made Great Britain a respected and
feared power all over the world. Cromwell
maintained a large degree of tolerance for rival denominations. He
supportedthe idea of a national church without bishops. The
ministers might be Presbyterian, Independent or Baptist.
Those who didn't like that, were allowed to meet in gathered
churches and even Roman Catholics and Quakers were tolerated. He worked
for reform of morals and the improvement of education. He
fought to make England a genuinely Christian nation and she enjoyed
a brief "Golden Age" in her history.

But his idea of the Commonwealth
failed because hewas
caught between opposing forces. His attempts to placate the army, the
nobility, Puritans and Parliament made each group be angry
with the rest. Leaving the political machinery of the parishes and
shires untouched under the new constitution was not very
sensible either; Cromwell, the army and Parliament were unable to
make a clear separation from the ancient constitution and traditional
customs of loyalty and obedience to monarchy. The English
learned an important lesson for the future: It was clear that
Parliament could no more exist without the crown, just as
the crown couldn't exist without Parliament; when one element of that mystical union
was destroyed, the other would certainly disappear."

Cromwell's coffin had this Inscription on a brass plate

PS. Cromwell's 'legacy' can still be seen in many
places in Great Britain: It's a country full of castles and medieval
fortifications, but a great number of them are now ruins because most of
them were destroyed by Cromwell's forces, after long and painful sieges,
at some point in the years of the Civil War. Just because their owners had
remained loyal to the King. Some of those castles were enormous and
beautiful, but today they are simple piles of rocks, so you can imagine
the terrible violence of those chaotic years.

His furious attitude towards powerful men, both
politicians and landowners turned him into a very unpopular person for
lots of people. And this is obvious: you don't normally take a corpse out
of his grave to hang him and cut his head off, unless you really HATE that
person!!